Month: August 2016

Everyone is familiar with K Pop, but not everyone is familiar with ‘The Korean Wave’.

Little did we know is that K Pop is one of the key elements that highly influenced the rise of the ‘Korean Wave’ across many Asian countries and reaching its way to the westernised countries in Europe and the U.S. The Korean Wave is all about the rapid transitional behaviour of popular cultural flow in Asia. According to Woongjae Ryoo , “The transnational popular culture flow is an example to illustrate the complexity involved in the cultural hybridisation thesis and the implications that is has for the debate on the globalisation of colour”. Meaning, that things such as Korean pop culture has travelled rapidly across the globe. Things such as Korean pop music and their dramatic television which has made an impact on how the rest of the world views South Korea. Distinguishing themselves separately from North Korea is important for South Korea due to the violence that happens in North Korea.

Stuart Hall (1991) acknowledges that global culture has had ‘a homogenizing effect on local values but recognises the role of local reception in shaping the communication process, where global culture is understood as a peculiar form of capital only able to rule through local capitals.’ With this being said, South Korea has personified its culture into something that looks like this:

South Korea has distinguished itself from North Korea through pop culture entities such as Korean Pop bands and Korean drama shows. Korean pop culture is widely recognised by neighbouring Asian countries and is also quite popular in western countries such as France and North America.

South Korean pop culture is relatively popular throughout the whole world. It lets us experience a different culture through different types of entertainment and media and if you don’t believe me, and you’re currently thinking “I have never liked, watched, or listened to anything that is Korean Pop Culture”, this video is ought to jog your memory. Enjoy 🙂 xx

Starting at university as a first year can be incredibly nerve racking for an individual. However, if you are starting at a local university it becomes a lot easier to make friends and is a lot easier to find common interests. For an international student it is twice as nerve racking as opposed to a domestic student. Researchers have conducted case studies to see the affects that a student transferring to an international university goes through. These studies also demonstrate how important it is to welcome and help international students with their transition. Marginson (2012) states that “research suggests the pathway to improvement lies in lifting the interactions between international students and local persons, especially students”. As domestic students, we have a role to help international students feel more welcome at university to make their transition easier.

International students are an important part of Universities income due to the fact that they pay for their degrees up front instead of relying on HECS debt like domestic students.

International students face many struggles with their transition into University. They often struggle with adapting to the accent in Australia than adapting to the English language itself. This especially applies for Asian International Students, who find it difficult to keep up with the fast paced Australian accent.

In this short documentary created by University of Technology students, international students from a number of countries are asked why they chose Australia as their study destination. Many of which state that it is the “multicultural aspect” and the “cultural variety” which is prominent in Australia.

There are many highlights and lowlights to studying internationally, Universities such as the University of Wollongong and University of Sydney offer services such as student support services. There are programs students can volunteer for, which involve domestic students spending an hour or two a week talking to an international student about how their transition to university is going and if there is anything that you can do to help them.